Tag: Matt Damon

“Promised Land,” the anti-fracking film written and produced by Hollywood stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, was made in part by a production company owned by the government of Arab oil emirate Abu Dhabi – a state in direct competition with American oil and gas producers.

The film is financed in part by Image Nation Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, one of 13 Arab emirates that makes up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and serves as that country’s capitol.

Abu Dhabi media was created by the Abu Dhabi government in 2007 with $27.3 million as part of that country’s effort to diversify its economy into new markets such as media production.

The film’s Abu Dhabi connection is significant, because the UAE is the world’s third largest oil exporter, according to 2011 figures from the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The country also holds the 7th largest proven reserves of crude oil and natural gas in the world. The UAE was ranked 17th in the world in natural gas production in 2010, according to EIA.

That the UAE is a major natural gas and oil producer puts it in direct competition with U.S. natural gas producers, who have seen a revolution in production with the increased use of fracking – an old process that has found new uses as technology has made it possible to drill new wells and open up gas reserves that were once thought inaccessible.

As fracking has found wider use, especially in the U.S., natural gas production has soared, bringing new jobs and economic opportunity to many American communities and weakening the hold that states such as the UAE once had on oil and gas production and global prices.

The film tells the story of Steve Butler (Damon), a natural gas company salesman, as he travels to an impoverished Pennsylvania town trying to acquire drilling rights from local landowners and environmentalist Dustin Noble (Krasinksi), who is intent on stopping him.

While the film focuses on the battle between Damon and Krasinski for the hearts and minds of poor, rural Pennsylvanians – culminating in a town vote on whether to allow Damon’s gas company to develop the farmland that sits atop large natural gas reserves – underlying the decision is a debate on the economic benefits of fracking.

Those economic benefits, promised by Damon’s gas company salesman, are weighed against the supposed economic costs of hydraulic fracturing – fracking – the process used by gas companies to break the shale rock formations that contain the gas reserves.

Krasinski’s character presents a host of supposed environmental consequences the town will be faced with if it allows fracking to occur, including so-called flaming water, contaminated ground water, and sick livestock.

Those supposed consequences have all been debunked as either lacking in evidence or not resulting from fracking.

In one scene, Krasinski’s character demonstrates to a fifth grade classroom how fracking can allegedly result in flaming water – a phenomenon that happens when water is infused with methane and then somehow set alight.

In the film, Krasinski’s character tries to show the children how dangerous flaming water can be by pretending to set the class’ pet turtle on fire.

In reality, flaming water is not produced by fracking as Colorado regulators found when they investigated so-called flaming wells documented in the anti-fracking documentary Gasland. Colorado Department of Natural Resources scientists found that the methane in the wells was a natural occurrence, not a byproduct of fracking.

In another scene from the film, town supervisor Gerry Richards states that fracking can cause natural gas to seep into groundwater – a claim that has been debunked by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who has said publicly that there is no evidence of groundwater contamination from fracking.

“In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater,” Jackson told Fox News in April 2012.

Two stories that caught my eye earlier in the week point out two of the basic problems with the Left. First is their overly emotional view of the world. Consider my first question Is Matt Damon REALLY that stupid?

Apparently so, he is starring in a movie that portrays American oil and gas companies as greedy, and evil. Now that is pretty typical of a Liberal Hollywood star, but the funny part is who financed the film

A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

The creators of Promised Land have gone to absurd lengths to vilify oil and gas companies, as Scribe’s Michael Sandoval noted Wednesday. Since recent events have demonstrated the relative environmental soundness of hydraulic fracturing – a technique for extracting oil and gas from shale formations – Promised Land’s script has been altered to make doom-saying environmentalists the tools of oil companies attempting to discredit legitimate “fracking” concerns.

While left-leaning Hollywood often targets supposed environmental evildoers, Promised Landwas also produced “in association with” Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, according to the preview’s list of credits. A spokesperson with DDA Public Relations, which runs PR for Participant Media, the company that developed the film fund backingPromised Land, confirmed that AD Media is a financier. The company is wholly owned by the government of the UAE.

And there you are, Damon is so eager to bash evil oil companies that he will star in a film bashing said oil and gas companies, even if that film is funded by a nation built on OIL! If Damon has his view on drilling or fracking, or the environment fine, but shouldn’t he be expected to THINK about who is paying for his movie?

Jay-Z recently revealed his conservative leanings. While he was promoting the NBA 2K13 game at the 40/40 Club in Manhattan last night, he offered his philosophy on politics and voiced his support for small government.

While the Brooklyn rapper is a high profile endorser of President Obama, he’s no fan of Washington.

“I don’t even like the word politics,” Jay-Z told MTV News. ”It implies something underhanded and I think we need less government.”

Despite his support for the President, Jay-Z’s “less government” viewpoint is more in line with Obama’s opponents on the right, such as Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who also calls for smaller government. But his stance on smaller government aside, Jay-Z is all in for the president’s re-election.

“I support Barack because I gotta respect that sort of vision. I gotta respect a man who is the first black President ever,” he said. “To have that sort of vision and dream, I have to support that.”

Identity politics! How sad. Here is a successful guy that will vote against his own interest, and his own ideology, because he thinks skin color matters more. These two stories lay bare the vacuous nature of Liberalism. Everything is predicated on emotions, not thinking. Matt Damon wants so badly to bash big oil companies that he will make a film bankrolled by a nation built entirely on big oil profits. Jay-Z will disregard intellectual arguments about who to vote for and vote for skin color instead.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Baldwin said that because he’s “very vocal” about his political views, his “opposition within the Internet” moved quickly to distort the narrative.

After yesterday’s incident, the actor said, “All of the sudden, within 30 minutes, the misrepresentation of the story is out there by your political opponents. …Fox Nation says ‘Baldwin punches photographer.’ Not true. And that’s the thing that I find is the most difficult.”

Funny, as is pointed out at the link, most “outspoken” people manage to not do the things Baldwin does

George Clooney is very vocal about his political leanings. So are Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks, Matthew Modine, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Harvey Weinstein and a plethora of Tinsel Town types.

Somehow, the aforementioned Hollywood players aren’t accused of wrestling with photographers, running over people on their bicycles or getting booted off of airplanes